


An Encounter in Neverwinter Wood

by EmeraldPhoenix1221



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26278678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldPhoenix1221/pseuds/EmeraldPhoenix1221
Summary: When a job hunting a minotaur near Neverwinter goes awry, Ranger Salyra Lumeris makes an unlikely friend.
Collections: Discord Community Archive





	An Encounter in Neverwinter Wood

For the third time that morning, Salyra Lumeris whirled around at the sound of rustling leaves.

She knew it wasn’t the minotaur she was stalking. One - if it was, she’d be dead. Two, she knew exactly where it was going, and she was catching up to it, so it couldn’t be behind her. She was a professional, after all.

From what she’d gathered, the minotaur had been tearing through the Southern Neverwinter Wood for about a week, but the bounty had only been put out two days prior, when it destroyed a logging camp and killed a dwarf and a human. She’d been the only ranger around Neverwinter at the time, so she took the job. Even if there wasn’t a bounty involved, she’d probably still have done it. The monster was a threat to society.

And threats needed to be eliminated.

Not ten minutes later, following a trail of hoofprints and destroyed brush, she heard it. A snort, followed by a thump, echoed through the forest. Salyra brushed her red hair out of her eyes, silently slung her longbow off her shoulder and stalked closer to the noise. Finally, she saw it. Standing in a relative clearing, the minotaur stretched in the morning sun. It snorted again, giving its head a shake as it did so. Salyra took a deep breath, drew her bow as she stood up…

And stepped on a twig.

“Fuck!” she said under her breath as she released the arrow. Despite the quite literal misstep, her shot found its mark and pierced the minotaur's skin just below its ribcage.

The monster bellowed in pain and rage as Salyra lined up a second shot. It turned to her place near the edge of the clearing, glared at her, and began stalking toward her. She released her second arrow, and it hit the minotaur in the upper right shoulder, causing it to loosen its grip on its greataxe… and sending it into a fury.

It took off at a dead sprint toward Salyra, who quickly made the calculation that she had no time for a third shot. She slung her bow onto her back, pulled out her shortspear, and waited for the minotaur to close the distance. It wasted no time doing so, swinging its axe at Salyra’s head. She ducked and rolled to the left side, keeping the hulking monster in front of her.

The minotaur’s axe slammed into the tree at an off angle, getting caught above a knot in the wood. Salyra seized her chance as the monster tried in vain to yank it free.

She thrust her spear into the minotaur’s abdomen at an upwards angle.

The monster abruptly let go of its axe and roared in pain; it twisted its torso to the right, pulling Salyra’s spear out of her hands and sending it flying a good fifteen feet into the clearing. Blood spurt out of the wound into the forest underbrush. Salyra rapidly backpedalled, drawing her shortsword as she did so.

The minotaur made a blind grasp at her, and she slashed her sword across its forearm. This didn’t do much but anger it anger it more, and Salyra suddenly felt herself back into the trunk of a tree.

She attempted to make a thrust at the monster’s heart, but it swatted her sword out of her hand, then grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the tree. It slowly closed its grip on her windpipe, and as she choked, it bent its head down, intent on impaling her with its horns. It pulled back to thrust, and Salyra, seeing spots and still hopelessly kicking and punching, closed her eyes and prepared for the blow.

It never came.

In an instant, she found herself on the ground gasping for air. She came to her senses as fast as she could, and looked up to see something she almost didn’t believe. A tiny green dragon had landed on the minotaur’s head and was clawing and biting at it. The larger beast swatted at its face, but couldn’t seem to catch the nimble dragon, and only succeeded in hitting itself in the face several times over. Eventually, the dragon coiled its tail around the minotaur’s neck, strangling it.

The barb at the end jammed into the monster’s flesh, and it seized up, its head completely frozen in position. The dragon then flew to Salyra’s shortsword and tossed it toward her.

Shaking her head to tear herself out of her daze, she picked it up and made her way around the minotaur’s back. She sliced through the back of its left knee, bringing its body, still paralyzed, down to her height. Walking back around to its front, Salyra took a deep breath and gripped her sword in both hands. In one clean motion, she brought it slashing across its neck, slitting its throat.

As the paralysis wore off, the minotaur spasmed and fell to the ground. It continued to twitch for several seconds before finally falling still.

Salyra, attempting to steady her ragged panting, sheathed her sword. She turned toward the clearing to retrieve her shortspear, only to see it in the mouth of the tiny dragon - a pseudodragon, she now recalled - a few feet in front of her; it promptly dropped the weapon on the ground and cocked its head to the side.

Salyra cautiously made her way to the spear and picked it up, not taking her eyes off the pseudodragon. She slipped it into its place on her sash, then carefully bent down on one knee in front of the tiny green creature. She stretched out her hand, palm up, like one would approach a dog.

She figured it was probably the same.

The dragon sniffed her hand a few times, licked it, then nuzzled it by shoving its head into it. She could have sworn she heard it purr like a cat.

She smiled. “You got a name, buddy?” she asked, rhetorically.

She was taken completely off guard when it looked her in the eyes and shook its head ‘no.’

Salyra blinked a few times before asking, “You understand Common?”

The dragon nodded.

“You can’t speak it?”

The dragon shook its head again.

“That must be frustrating.”

The dragon made the equivalent of an indifferent ‘mhpmh’ noise.

“Well, you don’t have a name… You’re a male. How’s Theseus? Theo, for short? You did just save me from a minotaur.”

The dragon thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Without warning, he jumped onto her shoulder. As she turned to look at him, he pressed his forehead to hers.

She felt a strange sensation, as if something was touching her mind - another presence in a place she’d grown accustomed to being alone in. After a few moments, she felt a thought that wasn’t her own. _Hello._

She recoiled, and Theo backpedaled on her shoulder and mewed in apology.

“No, it’s fine,” Salyra hurriedly reassured. “I just got startled is all.”

The dragon nodded slowly, and another thought flashed through Salyra’s head. _Okay._

She thought for a moment. Feeling a bit odd, she decided to try and transmit a thought to Theo. _Green._

_Me,_ came the response.

Salyra smiled. “Guess I made a new friend.”

Theo nodded. _Happy._


End file.
